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How Cannabis Could End a North American Epidemic

Yet another way in which medicinal cannabis could save lives: as a substitute for painkillers.

Opioid overdose has been described by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a national epidemic. And contrary to lingering stereotypes, death by overdose on opiates isn’t exclusive to recreational use of illicit substances. Victims include patients who gradually developed an addiction to prescription painkillers (the most popular of which include Percocet, Vicodin and OxyContin) and either failed to follow proper instructions or resorted to illegal alternatives – namely heroin – once prescriptions had run dry.

The most tragic part of this public health issue is that such casualties are entirely preventable.

Research has consistently revealed the following methods of prevention:

Improved prescription best practices: regulating overprescription and ensuring that patients understand the dangers of exceeding dosage and of mixing opiates with other substances, including alcohol and Valium.

In regards to prescription-related overdose, perhaps the most effective and practical method would be to prescribe an alternative to opiate painkillers, preventing patient addiction and misuse from the outset. One medical alternative is – wait for it – cannabis: a natural substance with analgesic, pain-relieving properties recognized since the second century AD in China.

The lack of government adoption of such fact-based provisions is not only disheartening – instilling a sense of repugnance towards the lengthy and at times backwards bureaucratic process as well as towards deeply rooted prohibitionist attitudes – but also cruel, standing idle in the face of so much empirical evidence, in the face of so many unnecessary deaths.

As citizens wait for evidence-based drug policies at the federal level, victims of opioid overdose may be added to the list of casualties of the war on drugs.